Sunday, June 07, 2009
Due Diligence Could Have Altered Outcome for Team Borel
ELMONT,NY, JUNE 6, 2009--And so, in this most unusual of Triple Crown seasons, it was a son of Birdstone--the sire that upset Smarty Jones in this classic in 2004--that upset this year’s 6-5 Belmont Stakes favorite, another son of Birdstone, 50-1 Kentucky Derby pin-up Mine That Bird, and denied jockey Calvin Borel his ticket to racing immortality.
Before the excuses for Mine That Bird begin, stop and pay tribute to Summer Bird and his trainer Tim Ice, who decided after the colt finished a strong third in the Arkansas Derby in only his third lifetime start, that the classic on the first Saturday of June was more appropriate for his horse than the one run on the first Saturday in May.
It was a Cajun delight all right, but not the one the crowd or Calvin Borel was anticipating. Borel will be lamenting what might have been tonight while fellow Cajuns Tim Ice and Kent Desormeaux will pop a couple of cold ones and suck on the heads of more than a few crawfish.
For Desormeaux, it was vindication for last year’s Belmont debacle aboard a failed Triple Crown champion, the odds-on favorite Big Brown, and relieves the bitter taste left by Real Quiet.
And after saving ground down the long backstretch on the best part of the Belmont surface this day, the inside, Desormeaux allowed his forward momentum to carry him outside for a free run at the battling leaders, who were now beginning to tire.
Desormeaux timed his move perfectly, winding up 2-¾ lengths to the good of Dunkirk, the rail path enabling him to come again to displace Mine That Bird, who fired prematurely and wide, tiring to finish third, a neck behind Dunkirk.
After the agonizing defeat on Real Quiet and the inglorious Big Brown fiasco, Desormeaux's well engineered ride, his fourth winner on the card, gave him his first Belmont victory.
For birthday boy Tim Ice, who brought a fresh horse to Belmont to win the champion’s test in only the colt’s fifth lifetime start, there’s nothing like celebrating your 35th in the winners’ circle following a classic.
The week must have seen like a blur to Borel, seeing himself on Leno and Letterman and, ringing the bell Thursday at the New York stock exchange, the social gatherings, the sightseeing with fiancée Lisa Funk.
So he took a week off from work, the week before the biggest day of his professional career. Without older brother Cecil to keep him focused, the responsibility fell on long time friend and agent, Jerry Hissam.
It made no sense to have not a single ride on the undercard. Actually, he had one, in a grass race, and took off that mount. Worse, it wasn’t clear watching Calvin ride Mine That Bird that he watched any of the races that occurred earlier in the day.
Here’s what Borel would have seen, according to official chart footnotes: First winner: “Moved through on rail to gain the lead“... Second: “Set rapid pace in two path, angled in…” Third: “Well placed along the rail.”
Fabulous Strike went wire to wire in the two-path. Gabby’s Golden Gal sprinter clear soon after the start (from post two going a mile). Munnings “moved up quickly along inside.” And, finally, the Belmont:
Dunkirk “sprinted clear along the rail…fought back gamely along the rail…” And Summer Bird: “Steadied along the rail… Raced in traffic on the inside…”
What Borel did was to circle the field four wide on the final turn. The fraction from the mile marker to the mile and a quarter point in the race went in :23.80. Mine That Bird made up 5-½ lengths, making his mid-move a ridiculous :22 3/5 with a quarter mile left to run. Mine That Bird was beaten three lengths for all of it. The ground loss and premature move was too much to overcome.
Borel didn't see it the same way, but this is where he crawls in a little deeper. "I knew the fence wasn't good," he said. "It's kind of deep down there... It's very--track is deep, you know. If anything, maybe moved a little earlier than I was supposed to...I wasn't going to take the race out of him because I knew someone was going to plod on this and beat us, and that's what happened."
And then, this: "Not that I moved him too early. It might have looked like he was a little fresher but they're going a mile and a half. Like I said, maybe might have moved a little tad early but he took me there... When they're moving that easy and the horses are coming back to you that fast, it might look like he got there quicker."
That's why this is a humbling game. Borel gave the kind of ride many informed people called the greatest race ride they've ever seen. But that was at home, where Borel won the bulk of his 4,500 races. This wasn't home, this was the infamous Big Sandy.
Calvin did not give it, or the race's history, enough respect. He rode overconfidently, having to justify the kind of pressure making guarantees places on you. He should have known better. And if he didn't, that's what agents are for. Friends don't let friends ride cold. Borel would have found no shortage of live mounts in one of the five undercard stakes.
Hopefully, he will learn from the experience. People are still rooting for him and Woolley said that he would ride him back next time out no matter where that race turns up.
Borel made the kind of move that gets you beat in this classic. The ride Desormeaux gave Summer Bird is the kind that wins Belmonts. Ask Tim Ice and the colt's owners, the Doctors Jayaraman.
Then ask the people at Gainesway Farm just outside Lexington. They probably could give you chapter and verse on just how America's hottest stud horse won a classic at Belmont Park, too.
And then consider that Summer Bird was the best horse on Saturday and that Mine That Bird, under the circumstances, might have been as well. In this game, that's as close as one gets to a win-win.
Written by John Pricci
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